For my friends at Aryaka, this is for you

A seasoned blogger I’m not. This isn’t to say that I’m afraid to share my thoughts publicly. As you get older, you start to focus on the things that matter to you most. As a long-time “technologist,” I have prided myself on finding, implementing and evangelizing the products that matter to me and, hopefully, my employers. Sometimes they have a strong technical focus; sometimes they have some flash, and sometimes, both. None of that matters though without an energized and singularly focused team sitting behind it.

Enter Aryaka and my first blog.

Prior to my experience with Aryaka, I sat on the fence about being either cautiously optimistic or cautiously skeptical of the Cloud.  I had built private, public and hybrid cloud infrastructures with no real consideration as to the viability.  To me, completing these tasks was only a result of being asked to do so.  If it worked, great; if it didn’t, great.

And then came a real business problem at Henny Penny.

Getting data back and forth to China is a difficult proposition for any company, no matter what size or complexity.  And I was challenged with the task of finding a solution that would not involve up-front cost or risk to the operation.  Add a few highly visible customers and immediate ramp-up, and it had catch-22 written all over it.

I turned to the only option I could find that made any sense.  It was not born out of knowledge, relationships or conference visits.  Somehow the right marketing material made it to me, promised performance, cost reduction and ease of use – the big blue and red logo – can’t forget it.

The delivery.

(Here was my experience.)

  • We obtained and started global testing of proof-of-concept equipment within three weeks.
  • We were given any and all time needed to fully test and obtain buy-in.  This included technical and ACTUAL user feedback.  This lasted 5+ weeks.
  • We saw results that were astounding on performance increase.  If you want them, contact me.
  • Customer Service and Engineering support had 5-minute response times.
  • They had points-of-presence across the globe, including Shanghai which mattered to us most.
  • No capital costs, no circuit costs, no ridiculous provisioning, and on and on.

The end and future.

Aryaka is very real and is a game changer (along with my friends at Nimble Storage).  There is absolutely no way to beat the cost reduction, time-to-market and performance for almost all use cases, in my opinion.

Their support is second to none.  I have never seen a company so focused on resolving issues and doing the right thing.  They are humble while doing it and recognize what “got them there.”

My challenge to the CEO was this, a couple of months ago, and still is: How do you keep that focus in a high growth pattern?  I will continue to remind him of that from time to time.  It’s my promise.

Go buy it.  What are you waiting on?

(Thanks to my good friends Yvette Scott and Gina Daugherty.  They unknowingly gave me the courage to blog IT.)

Ben Warner, IT Infrastructure Manager at Henny Penny

Ben Warner

Henny Penny, a global leader in food service equipment solutions and the inventor of the first commercial pressure fryer, uses Aryaka’s WAN as-a-Service to enhance collaboration between its global offices.

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